The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon. Proper wound care may aid in the speed of healing, the prevention of infection, reduction of scarring, etc. However, it is believed that some acute and chronic wounds may be unresponsive to conventional treatment regimens. For example, over 30% of hospital wound center patients may not have healed wounds even after many weeks of treatment. Conventional healing treatments may include, without limitation, topical, oral, and IV antibiotics for treatment of infected wounds, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, surgical and enzymatic wound debridement for wound closure assistance, the use of vacuum assistive closure, etc. Some existing techniques may be extremely costly. One can observe that the failure to properly heal a wound may often result in infection, and amputation as a last resort. These may severely change the lifestyle and subsequent health of the patient, death, uncertainty, etc. Amputation may be particularly likely in patients with diabetes, as diabetes in many cases may cause complications that may increase susceptibility to infection and may hinder wound healing. Due to the constant danger of complications with wound healing, acute and chronic wounds in diabetes patients are believed to be the cause of nearly 60% of non-traumatic lower-limb amputations.
The following is an example of a specific aspect in the prior art that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon. By way of educational background, an aspect of the prior art generally useful to be aware of is that there are currently some approaches available for aiding or accelerating wound healing which may be used with conventional techniques or instead of conventional techniques. One such approach teaches a method and apparatus for localized low energy photon therapy (LEPT). Another approach teaches an apparatus and method for a pulsed electromagnetic energy treatment apparatus and method. This method typically uses only a pulsed electromagnetic energy treatment directly on or adjacent to a wound and generally does not specifically address bacterial infection, circulatory changes to the wound area, nutritional or biomechanical aspects for wound healing, etc. Yet another current wound healing approach may use a transdermal therapeutic patch to introduce a therapeutic substance into a wound and then expose the patch to an electromagnetic pulse in a specified UV light range of λ=365 nm. Yet another approach shows a method and apparatus for therapeutic laser treatment of wounds. It is believed that the applied laser energy in this method often causes damage or inflammation to the tissue of the patient to promote reactive healing. Other approaches may use various different substances to aid in healing such as, but not limited to, an extracellular polymeric substance solvating system, angiogenic crystallin proteins and/or endothelial cell migration, specifically Alpha (x) A-crystallin and βB2 crystallin, regenerative stem cells in vivo and in situ, TNF antagonist, TACE inhibitors, a neutrophil antagonist, a combination of a TNF antagonist and/or a TACE inhibitor and a neutrophil antagonist, specifically alefacept, efalizumab, etanercept, adalimumab, onercept, dapsone, colchicine, or analogs of such and prodrugs, sulfapyridine, sulfasalazine, mesalamine, or any derivatives. Furthermore, due to the benefits good nutrition may have on the body, one may expect that the consumption of various different nutrients may aid in wound healing. It is believed that nutrient intake may affect type-2 diabetes. It is also believed that Vitamin D3 may be important in combatting bacterial infections. It is further believed that coenzyme Q10 may have a role in management of chronic heart failure. It is also believed that intake of n-3 Fatty acids may benefit cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes outcomes. It is further believed that zinc supplementation may lower the incidence of infection. One current approach employs tube feeding formulations and methods for using same to promote wound healing. However, tube feeding may be dangerous, inconvenient, uncomfortable, or otherwise undesirable for some patients.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that these traditional techniques are not perfect and leave room for more optimal approaches.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.